“Aye, sir,” both officers said in tandem, reminding Sulu of the way the universal translator rendered Tholian speech.

Sulu pointed his chair once again toward the main viewer, which displayed an impressive hash of colorful static. He leaned forward again, resting his hand on his chin. “Clean that up for me, Rand. I want to get a good look at what’s out there.”

The static quickly rearranged itself, revealing a bland, gray expanse. They might have been flying through the interior of a storm cloud on Earth.

Then Sulu saw that the vista before him was not entirely devoid of detail. Randomly scattered dark shapes, no doubt visible only because of enhancement by Excelsior’smain computer, were becoming visible.

“Commander Lojur, increase magnification by a factor of ten,” Sulu ordered. A moment later, the dark spots became easier still to resolve against the gray background. He thought he could make out an assortment of wedge shapes, juxtaposed against long, roughly cylindrical objects. He knew at once what it was.

“It’s a graveyard of ships,” Chekov said from a secondary science station. “I’m reading dozens of Tholian and Neyel vessels. Maybe hundreds.”

“Increase viewer to full magnification,” Sulu said.

“Full mag,” said Lojur.

Almost at once, the drifting shapes of the fallen ships, a mass astrogational cemetery for two great cultures, grew even more distinct. It was a mute testament to the last several years of sustained Tholian-Neyel conflict, a war as old as the first contact between the two species.

Suddenly, amid the tumble of dead, forgotten vessels, Sulu found his eyes drawn to a still more distant, yet familiar, shape. It lay just on the ragged edge of his visual resolution, but for an instant he was utterly certain of what he’d seen.

[274] A saucer, connected by a narrow pylon to a bulbous secondary hell, from which depended a pair of graceful outboard nacelles. It betrayed no sign of light or life. For it had been wandering here, a tomb within another tomb, for three decades.

“Defiant,”he whispered, the pang of loss commingling with the exultation of discovery. For a fleeting moment, the Neyel and the Tholians were forgotten, lost in the desire to bring the long-dead starship home.

Two alarms blared almost simultaneously, from the main science and tactical stations respectively. The tumult prodded Tuvok, Chekov, and Akaar to frenetic activity.

“Two proximity alarms, Captain,” said Tuvok evenly.

“I read four Tholiàn vessels approaching us aft,” Akaar confirmed. “Yilskene must have decided to chase us.”

“Then we’d better lose him,” Sulu said. Defiant’sdrifting corpse would have to wait for another day, another ship. “What’s the other alarm about?”

Chekov hunched over a hooded scanner at the secondary science station. “It’s about what’s ahead of us. A large grouping of Neyel power signatures. More ships than I can count. Far bigger than the Tholian contingent.”

Sulu grinned at his first officer. “Whatever else Yilskene may be, he isn’t stupid. Once his sensors pick up what’s ahead of us, I don’t think he’ll be bothering us for a while.”

But he also knew that this begged a more important question: How will the Neyel react to us?

The thoughtcolors of Ruskene [the Sallow] had grown even more offensively shrill and strident. “Sensing Units have touched additional invader vessel signatures.”

“Quantity?” Yilskene asked.

“More vessels than we possess. Many more. We are far overmatched.”

Yilskene’s righteous anger became viscous and fluid, like [275] the volcanic Underrock upon which Tholia’s three great continents floated. He tried to force the colors of calm and equanimity upon himself, but had little success.

“Turn Jeb’v Tholisabout,” he said at length. “Inform the others that all vessels are to reverse course. And summon reinforcements. We will take up station once more at the rift aperture. Captain Sulu will not wish to live out his days in the remote places from which the invader infestation comes.

“ Excelsiormust return the way it came. And we will welcome it appropriately when it does.”

“Reaching the far interspace terminus ... now,” Lojur said, bracing himself against his console.

Sulu felt Excelsiorlurch again, just as during the initial passage into interspace. He watched as the gray nothingness on the screen vanished, to be replaced almost instantaneously by a far more familiar-looking starscape. But against the velvet backdrop of trackless space, the stars were more densely packed than any other region of space Sulu had ever visited.

Then he noticed that some of those stars weren’t, in fact, stars at all.

“Ships. Neyel ships.” Sulu turned to Tuvok and Chekov. “How many are there?”

“I am reading several dozen Neyel vessels, massed along the edges of interspace,” Tuvok reported, crouching over his scanner. “Long-range sensors show hundreds more in a nearby system. There’s a class-M planet there that appears to be the source of these vessels. The Neyel Hegemony must have established a substantial shipbuilding operation there.”

“Right near their side of the interspatial rift,” Chekov said, staring at the viewer’s magnified images of row upon row of armed, cylindrical vessels built along the same general lines as Oghen’s Flame.

“What better place is there for mounting a massive invasion than your mortal enemy’s backyard?” Sulu said.

[276] Akaar turned from his console. “Judging from the number of ships apparently still being assembled in orbit around the Class-M world, I would estimate this invasion to be mere weeks away. If not sooner.”

“If any Tholians have seen this, the Neyel must have prevented them from reporting back,” Chekov said. “Otherwise, the Tholians would have set up some fortifications on their side. And we’d have detected more than the occasional skirmish.” Chekov shook his head. “I’m certainly glad you ducked out of that sword fight, Captain. This looks muchsafer.”

Grinning at his exec, Sulu said, “Relax, Pavel. We’re among friends. Janice, please open a channel to Oghen’s Flame.”

“Aye, sir.”‘

A moment later, the gray faces of Joh’jym, Oratok, and Jerdahn appeared on the viewer. Fortunately, it appeared that Jerdahn had succeeded in hanging onto some pretty highly placed friends. Let’s hope his luck continues,Sulu thought. I have a feeling we’re all going to need it.

“Fortune has favored us,”Joh’jym said, a smile slightly bending his blunt features. “We have defeated the Devils’ snare. We owe you our thanks.”

“No more than we owe you, Drech’tor Joh’jym,” Sulu said.

“Would you return through the Rift to your home space?”Jerdahn asked.

“I’m afraid we must, Jerdahn. We can only stay here long enough to check Excelsiorfor damage. Then we’ll have to return the same way we came.”

“To face the Devils,”Oratok said.

“Alone,”added Joh’jym. He sounded wistful, as though Excelsior’sdestruction at the hands of the Tholians were a foregone conclusion. Maybe it is.

“Perhaps death cannot be outrun, Hikarusulu,” Joh’jym said. “But there is no reason to rush into her grasp. Oghen, our Coreworld, lies only moments away at Efti’el speeds. I [277] would like you to see it—and the fleet that will avenge you shortly after you return to Devil space.”

Sulu realized that he still had more than three hours before his honor would be forever tarnished in Yilskene’s eyes. There would be time to visit, at least briefly, the planet the Neyel thought of as their homeworld.

“I would be honored, Drech’tor,” Sulu said, then ordered Lojur to follow Oghen’s Flameto its destination.

Excelsiorsettled into a standard orbit only a few kilometers away from Oghen’s Flame.Standing before the bridge viewer beside Chekov and Burgess, Sulu finally found a quiet moment to simply admire the tainted, yet still beautiful world that turned slowly some six hundred kilometers below.